Paul Belmondo

Paul Belmondo

23/4/1963

The son of one of France's most famous actors, he entered 27 Grand Prix for the March and Pacific F1 teams. His best finish was 9th in the Hungarian Grand Prix in 1992. Later turned to sports car racing.

Born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Ile-de-France, Paul Belmondo is a French former Formula One driver who raced for the March and Pacific Racing teams. He is the son of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and grandson of sculptor Paul Belmondo. Around 1981, Paul gained publicity for becoming the lover of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.

He started racing in karts in 1979 and won the Yamaha Karting Challenge in 1981.

He moved to cars in 1982 and won the Volant Elf Series title and though he occasionally put in respectable performances in French between 1983 and 1986, he was never quite there.

In 1987 he raced in Formula 3 and Formula 3000 scoring a fifth place at Pau with a GBDA Lola. Over the next three seasons he achieved little save a single sixth place in the F3000 round at Le Mans in 1990.

Then, in 1992, he joined the March F1 team as a paying driver. He qualified for 5 of the eleven races he entered, finishing ninth in the Hungarian Grand Prix his last with the team before running out of money and being replaced by Emanuele Naspetti.

Then two years later, in 1994, he became part of the new Pacific Grand Prix team. The car was not even remotely competitive and he only qualified for two races.

That year he once again raced at Le Mans driving a Venturi 600 LM with Ferdinand de Lesseps and Jacques Tropenat, but they failed to qualify.

Retained by Venture for Le Mans in 1995 he qualified the new 600 SLM with Arnaud Trevisiol and Jean-Marc Gounon. They finished but were unclassified. He also raced at Ferrari F40 for Pilot Aldix team in the BPR Global GT Endurance Series.

He continued an F40 GTE in Global GTs in 1996. A better season saw him take pole at Paul Ricard, Anderstorp and Nogaro, and finish 2nd at Zhuhai to finish 5th = in the championship.

Keeping up his ties with Pacific and Bertrand Gachot, In 1997 Belmondo went to Japan to race for Pacific in the Japanese GT Championship alongside Gachot in a Toyota Supra. He also raced in the Porsche Supercup at Imola, Monaco and the Nurburgring.

He formed his own team, Paul Belmondo Racing, in 1998, to compete in the Porsche Supercup and, in 1999, he entered both the French GT Championship and the FIA GT Championship in Chrysler Viper GTS-Rs. In the French championship, sharing the car with Gosselin and also Marc Rostan, he recorded 5 top five finishes, including 2nd at Valencia and a victory at Le Mans Bugatti. In the FIA championship, the highlight of his season was a win at Homestead in America, where with Clerico he beat the works ORECA cars.